Houston-based L.J. Melody & Co. operates offices in 32 major markets and is one of the largest real estate investment banking firms in the United States. Its asset management portfolio totals more than $50 billion.

Miami — Acting on behalf of an undisclosed private investment group, Terranova Corp. arranged a $9.5 million loan for the purchase of two Miami-area retail properties. The loan, provided by First Union National Bank, was used to acquire Parkhill Plaza and Palm Plaza from an undisclosed out-of-state investor for approximately $44 per sq. ft.

Parkhill Plaza is a 120,101-sq.-ft. Winn-Dixie-anchored shopping center on West Flagler Street in Miami. Palm Plaza is a 96,918-sq.-ft. center on 67th Avenue in Miami Lakes.

Agree Realty is a self-administered, self-managed REIT that develops, acquires, owns and operates properties that are primarily leased to major national and regional retailers under net lease agreements.

Washington, D.C. — Santa Monica, Calif.-based tenant representation firm Epsteen & Associates and ChainLinks Retail Advisors closed a series of leases for national coffee retailer Starbucks throughout the state of California. Epsteen will represent Starbucks.

The leases include Starbucks locations at Los Cerritos mall in Cerritos; Terra Vista Town Center in Rancho Cucamonga; and Amerige Town Center in Fullerton, among others.

ChainLinks is a full-service real estate service provider based in Washington. The firm operates offices in more than 50 cities and covers all major markets throughout the United States and Canada.

Chickasaw Trails is anchored by a 47,813-sq.-ft. Publix grocery store. The center was built in 1994 and is 100% occupied. Other retailers include Blockbuster Video, Great Clips, Subway, State Farm Insurance, Radio Shack and Giovanni's Restaurant. “This property is located in one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation, just north of the Orlando International Airport,” notes Inland's Steve Sanders, senior vice president of acquisitions.

Inland now owns seven properties in the Orlando area and nearly 2 million sq. ft. of retail space in central Florida.

Cleveland — Locally based Forest City Enterprises sold Tucson Mall in Arizona to Chicago-based General Growth Properties through a tax-deferred exchange. The 1.3 million-sq.-ft. regional mall — which was developed by Forest City in 1982 and underwent an expansion in 1991 — sold for a total purchase price of $180 million.

Forest City had previously granted an option for the purchase of its tenancy-in-common interest in Tucson Mall for $121.5 million, its 67.5% share. This transaction resulted in an after-tax gain of $51 million and generated cash proceeds of $73 million, Forest City announced.

“This sale is an excellent example of our disposition strategy in action,” notes Charles Ratner, Forest City's president and CEO. “After opening Tucson Mall in 1982, we proceeded to create one of the most dominant malls in the West. We are now taking advantage of the very large increase in value we have generated over the years and plan to reinvest the proceeds into higher yielding projects.”

Denver — Locally based J. Herzog & Sons (JHS) acquired Oakwood Mall in Enid, Okla., for $17 million from Chicago-based Oakwood Mall Limited Partnership. JHS will manage the 615,000-sq.-ft. regional mall, which is anchored by Dillard's, Sears, JCPenney, Goody's and Dickinson Theatres. The private investment company now manages more than 4 million sq. ft. of retail properties throughout the country.

The seller, Watkins Associated Developers, sold the Publix and Piccadilly-anchored center to CenterAmerica Ventura Fund.

Eric Zimmermann and Whitney Knoll with Trammell Crow Co. represented the seller. Neal Pringles of Cobblestone Capital Co. represented CenterAmerica Ventura Fund. This property is the third to be sold by Knoll and Zimmermann since joining Trammell Crow Co. in early 2001.

CenterAmerica Venture Fund is a joint venture comprised of Center America Property Trust and pensions advised by AEW Capital Management. Individually and in the joint venture, CenterAmerica Property Trust now owns approximately 110 shopping centers with 12 million sq. ft. of retail space. Trammell Crow Co. is one of the largest diversified commercial real estate services companies in the United States.

SIDEBAR: Global retailing's Top 20

Globalization is intensifying among the top 100 retailers worldwide, according to a recent report by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Retail Intelligence System.

The Top 100 Retailers Worldwide 2000 indicates the average retail company operates in more than seven countries. In addition, the report notes, a significant number of retailers have entered once-fearsome markets such as Russia and China.

According to the report, a retailer needed to generate annual sales of $4.32 billion in 2000 to make the top 100 list, almost identical to 1999's $4.37 billion.